Nahtlos and Kaasa Develop a Solution for Monitoring Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a long-term condition that causes inflammation in the lungs, damaged lung tissue, and a narrowing of the airways, making breathing difficult. More than 380 million people worldwide are estimated to have COPD.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a leading cause of hospital re-admissions. The main problem is that the condition of the lungs can get worse without the patient realizing it, and by the time he does know it, the re-admission cannot be avoided. Therefore, the treatment of COPD is increasingly turning to continuous monitoring. One way to measure COPD continuously could be via long-term Heart Rate Variability (HRV) recording.
For a clinical study in Switzerland, Nahtlos AG has therefore developed a solution for the long-term recording and displaying of the HRV in COPD patients. The competent software partner of Nahtlos in the project was Kaasa solution GmbH from Germany. Kaasa’s team programmed the software for long-term recording of R-R Intervals (from which the HRV is derived and analyzed). The system runs with the Movesense Sensor.
— The openness of the Movesense sensor platform as well as the possibility to get the sensor as a comfortable, lightweight medical device was crucial for us to choose Movesense, explains José Näf, Co-Founder of Nahtlos AG.
Nahtlos AG is a Swiss startup that developed a novel electrode technology for long-term medical applications. Its technology is based on a unique combination of a textile electrode and a humidification unit, which guarantees excellent clinically validated signal quality and is skin-friendly over long-term application. Usual chest straps with dry electrodes are not suitable for this case. They feel tight (especially for COPD patients who find breathing difficult anyway) and lead to poor signal quality in patients with dry skin (most elderly patients).
Kaasa solution GmbH is a software specialist for the Movesense Sensor Platform and an official partner of Movesense. For this project, Kaasa solution developed an application that enables the Movesense Sensor to continuously record R-R intervals for almost 3 weeks with one battery. The data is automatically sent to a mobile phone every 4-6 hours to have continuous raw data sets.
— The tool is strengthening our position to provide real problem solving for our partners around the world. With Nahtlos AG, we have a dedicated specialist for long term recordings and we are looking forward to upcoming use cases with them, says Nico Kaartinen, Managing Director of Kaasa solution GmbH.
Nahtlos Electrodes, Kaasa Solution, and Movesense are the ideal solution for long-term qualitative monitoring of R-R intervals and enabling medical researchers to gain new insights.
Movesense sensor is available as a Class IIa medical device and as a non-medical version. To discuss with the Movesense team about your needs for using Movesense sensor as part of the solutions that your company is developing, get in touch with us via the link below.
